Dean Phillips

I’ve met Dean Phillips twice now, both times at Stonehenge at the solstice. Dean is the custodian of the Wally Hope archive and keeper of Wally’s box.

The first time was in the car-park. I’d just parked up and was sipping a beer, when this friendly voice called out to me.

“Is that Mr Stone?”

We were parked in the same row, just a few cars apart. We had arrived at almost the same time.

The thing was, we’d only been in correspondence up till then… and that very day I’d finished off a chapter of a book I was writing, by talking of Wally Hope’s death.

“We can say this, however: that his was probably not the first human sacrifice to be associated with Stonehenge.” Those were the last words I’d written before starting on my journey that morning.

And now here he was, Dean Phillips, with Wally’s box, the one that Penny Rimbaud, had made to carry his ashes, which had been scattered at Stonehenge all those years ago.

Penny Rimbaud was the drummer with Crass, the anarcho-punk band who were formed, in part, to fulfil Wally Hope’s dream: “We want to plant a Garden of Eden with apricots and cherries, where there will be guitars instead of guns and the sun will be our nuclear bomb.” Wally Hope was the guy whose vision it was to start the Stonehenge Free Festival in the first place, way back in 1974.

Travelling Daze

The front cover of Travelling Daze by Alan Dearling & friends

The reason I’m telling you this is that I’ve been reading Travelling Daze, a book compiled and part-written by Alan Dearling, with help from over 40 of his Traveller friends. That includes Dean, who has written a piece about Wally Hope.

You can’t write a book about the origins of the hippie movement in the UK, without mentioning Wally Hope. He was the martyr of Stonehenge. He died so the festival could live.

The book contains a lot of new information about Wally. It includes a collection of letters written from prison, in the name of Phil Russell - prison number 11413 – from 1967-68, long before he became known as Wally Hope.

They are remarkable documents, not least because of the means by which Alan Dearling acquired them. He was sitting in a pub in Lyme Regis, he says, thinking about Wally, when he fell into conversation with a couple called Victoria and Nick.

As he says: “No such thing as coincidences, but four or five pints later, and I had learned that Nick was Phil Russell’s closest friend back in the Windsor/Stoke Poges area of 1965-67.”

Thus we have a set of remembrances of Phil Russell by one of his friends from the days when they were both just a couple of young men hanging around in the burgeoning hippie scene in the 60s, going to Eel Pie Island to watch the new R’n’B bands which were emerging from the Jazz scene at the time, smoking some weed and imagining a future for themselves; and then some letters Phil wrote from prison after he’d been busted for dope, possibly at the instigation of his crazy mother, in order to teach him a lesson.

There are also facsimiles of some of the postcards Phil sent to his friends, the Hatfields, from Cyprus, and while filming about pirates with Peter Sellers, amongst other things. The writing is bold and lively, and the words are interspersed with little drawings, mainly of the sun in the form of a smiley face, with little beams radiating from it.

That was Phil’s religion. He was a sun worshiper. No wonder he came up with the idea for a midsummer festival at Stonehenge, Britain foremost sun-temple.

And just as you can’t write about the hippie scene without mentioning Wally Hope, so you can’t mention Stonehenge and the free festivals without mentioning New Age Travellers.

That was what the festivals – Stonehenge and Windsor – kick started in Britain, because, while the hippie scene was an American phenomenon transported to the UK, once it had become established here it put down roots and fed from the very soil of these Isles, thus creating its own particular flavour.

That flavour was New Age Travellers, free festivals, the Peace Convoy, the squatter’s movement, communes, punk – the mutant child of hippie anarchism - and our own unique set of bands. Alan Dearling’s beautiful book concentrates on New Age Travellers specifically, but you can feel all the rest swirling around in the design like the DayGlo colours in a psychedelic poster.

Sid Rawle

See if you can pick Sid out of the crowd. Stonehenge 1984.

We might think that Phil Russell’s story was a one-off – a weird story from a weird time – if it wasn’t for the fact that it is repeated again and again. Not only did Phil Russell have a vision of a large gathering of the tribes in a sacred spot on these Isles, but, remarkably, so did a number of other people too, though the locations weren’t always the same.

One of them, Sid Rawle, has a prominent place in this book. This is because Sid was writing his autobiography before he died, with the help of Cathy Come Home author Jeremy Sandford, which Alan had planned to publish. Unfortunately the memoir was never finished, but there are major extracts in these pages.

Sid tells you a lot about what was wrong with the hippie scene, while at the same time telling you what was right about it too.

Sid was renowned for his promiscuity, and he liked his girls very young. This might have been just about acceptable in the late sixties, when he was still relatively young himself, but it became increasingly a problem as the years went by, and the age difference went from being a gap to a chasm to being almost criminal. Girls young enough to be his grandchildren – barely children themselves - found themselves at the mercy of his groping hands in the sweat-lodge or by the campfire and there are few women who knew him in his later years who have much of a good word to say about him now.

But that tells you something about the era. It was a transitional time. We’d just come out of the austerity and the repression of the post-war years. The hippies emerged from this into a time of renewed hope and prosperity. All the barriers were coming down. Class barriers were being smashed to pieces, particularly by the new bands, many of whom, working class lads, suddenly found themselves the recipients of unimaginable riches. The Who and the Kinks were examples of this.

And sexual mores were changing too. Women had access to the pill and there was a new attitude abroad. The hippie generation were experimenting with free love. We could all share our bodies, they said, naively, without knowing how dangerous this could be. It wasn’t only about STDs: it was about jealousy and heartache and loss of self-esteem and the huge damage that a promiscuous lifestyle could do to your soul. The hippies played fast and loose with love and a lot of them lost their hold on it along the way.

We can blame Sid now for his horrible attitudes to women, but the fact is that his generation paved the way for the time we have now.

In the 50s, there was no such thing as sex before marriage… well there was of course only it was a furtive and secretive pastime, and would often lead to unwanted pregnancies and shotgun weddings followed by a life of unhappiness. In the 60s and 70s things went too far the other way, and everyone was wildly promiscuous; but these days things have settled down again, the youth are allowed to experiment with their sexuality, without being condemned for it, and mostly people find their own way through the emotional storms without losing sight of the main aim, which is to find love and companionship in your life.

It was a revolutionary time, a kind of interregnum not unlike the period after the English Civil War, when all was stirring and a new vision lead the way. The period gave birth to free love and free festivals and free spirituality, to free politics, and free food – often provided by the Krishna Temple – to the search for freedom on the open road, through the Traveller movement, and to free accommodation through the squatter’s movement. The politics of spirituality. The spirituality of politics. The hippies didn’t differentiate. It was a Gnostic time, in which people were seeking their own internal light, rejecting the constraints of the past in favour of visions from God and mystical signs in the heavens.

Wally Hope said he had seen Jesus in Cyprus; Bill Dwyer, who started the Windsor festival, did so after a vision from God; while Andrew Kerr, who started the Glastonbury festival, was following rainbows – literally - and sold his house to pay for it. And Sid Rawle’s great vision was land reform: getting back to nature and everyone renewing their connection with the land.

The Convoy

Amanda Liddle

Police stand off 1991

Spider the honest drug dealer: painting by David Stooke

These are the famous figures of the movement, the visionaries and the martyrs whose names have come down to us through history, but what Travelling Daze does is to fill in the gaps. It tells us about the people who followed up on that vision and who turned it into reality. So you don’t only meet Sid Rawle and Wally Hope: you meet Phil the Beer and Joe Public and George Firsoff and Spider the honest drug dealer… and Amanda Liddle – known as Gemini – who bought a truck and ended up leading the convoy in the year after the infamous Battle of the Beanfield, with the police lined up at every turnoff to block their exit, picking them off one by one, and who only managed to avoid a beating by being unfailingly polite to one of the officers who was about to smash his way into her cab.

“What seems to be the trouble officer?” she said, in her sweetest voice, and defused the situation, allowing the coppers to find their humanity again, and the convoy to go on its way.

The book is full of such stories, of life on the road, of its joys and its hardships. And it is full of pictures too: of photographs by Taff the Photo and Traveller Dave, and paintings by the artist David Stooke and many more. This is where the book really comes into its own: it is A4 landscape, in full colour, with a phantasmagoria of gorgeous images, including many portraits of the central figures in this lost and suppressed movement.

You look at those faces and you see people who have lived life, real life, to its very core. You see the buses and the trucks they lived in, and you see how wonderfully comfortable they were, how plausible this lifestyle was. Because it didn’t die because of any internal failure: it died because it was beaten into submission by a hostile establishment, who recognised the threat to their way of life and who set out to destroy it.

It’s no accident that the Travellers were smashed to a pulp in the same year that the Miners were goaded into a strike.

Both represented a challenge to the dominant mores of Industrial Capitalism in the late 20th century.

Both were very nearly destroyed, although the point about this book is to remind us of the Traveller’s continuing existence and of their extraordinary achievements in the years they flourished. They have not gone away. They still exist, though in smaller numbers, making a decent living out of the new pay-festival circuit, which has sprung up in their wake. To slightly misquote the motto of the book, they have “Endured, Adapted, Evolved” right up to the present day.

The Fool

And that’s what Dean Phillips is doing too, still “enduring, adapting, evolving” in his never ending quest to bring Wally Hope’s vision back to life.

The next time I met him was in the centre of the circle at Stonehenge, earlier this year.

“Hello Mr Stone,” he said again, and came sort of dancing and swirling through the crowd towards me, with Wally’s box in a velvet case around his neck.

He was wearing silver nail polish and there was a sparkle of glitter around his eyes. He was twinkling at me. He looked like some cosmic jester out of an archetypal miracle play come to bring a message of hope and good humour to the world. He said he’d been sleeping rough around Stonehenge for the last few weeks, though you wouldn’t have thought so to look at him. He looked in remarkably good form.

I asked to see Wally’s box, and he opened up the case to show me. On the inside of the case was an over-sized playing card, stitched into the fabric of the cover.

“The Ace of Hearts,” said Dean. “Wally’s favourite card.”

And after that he sort of jiggled away again, weaving into the crowd, and disappeared.

He reminded me of the Fool in the Tarot deck. It was like he was stepping off the edge of the world into the Great Unknown, trusting in the Ace of Hearts to guide him.

More by CJ Stone

The Origins of the Stonehenge Free FestivalThe Stonehenge Free Festival started in 1974. People had been meeting at Stonehenge for the solstice for decades before this. There are photographs of solstice-night celebrations dating back many years: to the early 20th Century at least.

Memories of a Free FestivalSo what is a free festival? It's a party. It's a camping trip. It's a social gathering. It's a spiritual occasion. It's a celebration. It's a political protest. It's a rally.

Comments

No HTML is allowed in comments, but URLs will be hyperlinked. Comments are not for promoting your articles or other sites.

sending

AUTHOR

Christopher James Stone

4 years agofrom Whitstable, UK

moocow, you are right. I think I might know one or two of the people you describe, or at least people very like them. There were a lot of extremely dodgy people attached to the hippie and travellers scene, and I understand your reaction as one of the victims. But times of change throw up all sorts of uncertainty, and, as I say in the piece, it was a transitional time. The old ways had to be got rid of for the new ways to emerge. There was also, it has to be remembered, "a lot of neglectful and dubious parenting skills" in previous generations too, and while things were mad for a time, the younger generation seem much more grounded in their sexuality than we were. I can only hope that you recover from the abuse you suffered and offer you my best wishes for your future.

moocow

4 years ago

There were a lot of incredibly dodgy men and women some of whom still spread their toxicity and neglectful and dubious parenting "skills" through the generations- many of us now in our mid forties and fifties (who did not succumb in some way i.e drugs drink and or madness or even death) have paid good money for psychotherapy etc and are still un-ravelling the legacy of a bunch of self centred (though often very charismatic imaginative and creative) people in some ways. These people with no morals, principles or compassion who have lived on in some cases, to become sad caricatures of themselves, with little or no redeeming features and happily little influence in the present world, which helps those of us who suffered at their hands to afford a little hope for the future and any new children we have tried, imperfectly to nurture and help in the here and now. Being a "flawed but good enough parent" is infinitely preferable for all concerned to the neglectful multi-abusive diabolical, sociopathic, hedonstic ,cold and downright damaging parents and pseudo-parents that many of us "hippy kids" had to survive. We have begun to reverse the damage, but it will take time through the generations.

whowas

6 years ago

Gosh, now that just took me back, right back. I was in the thick of all that for a time.

Thatcher's victory broke something vital deep in the heart of our nation. I don't think we've ever recovered. I feel like weeping. What hope is there now?

Beautifully written of course. You really are a splendid writer, such craft. Thank you!

susannalafond

6 years ago

I have only just seen this review Chris - Dean attends the Stonehenge Round Table and is a legend - Sid was the same as Jimmy Saville and typical of the era. I worked in the drama department of the BBC 69-72

and many of the directors etc assumed any girls were 'up for it' - they were usually married as you say 'by shotgun'. When I bought a new Fiat 500 (£5oo) I had to get a male (sound recordist) to counter sign the HP agreement as I had no brother/father /husband to guarantee me. It was the same to rent a TV. Abortion and homosexuality were only just being legalised and LSD made illegal.

Sid Hope

6 years ago

Hi Chris Stone. My name is Sid, founder of the 13 mnth Old Stonehenge Festival Campaign 2012. I've lobbied M.P's, Protested, Promoted, attended meetings with Eng Heritage, Custodians of the Stones, & have the backing of the main druid Orders. I produce a Free Quarterly Newsletter & Pro Henge fest mag '3rd stone from the Sun' which has just sold out. I'm interested in getting the mag on line & would like your advice. Any money raised would go to running the Campaign. You can find me on facebook or email: Festivalcampaign2012@hotmail.co.uk

romie blair

6 years ago

met this guy at audio soup ,what an amazing book he gave me a copy for handing out some flyers of his book as he had to leave ,it was an amazing read and the photos were brilliant altho the book didn't last long some one else got it ....il have to go out and get anther ....x

AUTHOR

Christopher James Stone

6 years agofrom Whitstable, UK

I don't think anyone is attempting to excuse him, and we'd be covering up if we didn't include him. Sid represents a warning to all of us of what can go wrong when you take to search for "freedom" too far....

Al1

6 years ago

It may be true that many women (and men) were naïve about sex and 'free' love, but nothing excused Sid Rawles's behaviour to young girls. It's never been acceptable to behave like that, and making excuses like this can only add to damage done. The last time I saw him was at the Forest Fair, where all the kids were throwing eggs at him and calling him a nonce. He might have been an early traveller but frankly we could have done without him.

The rest of the book contains some excellent material as far as I've seen, it's great to hear re-tellings of old tales and legends, see the pics etc, remember some really good times, I think it's fantastic in every way except one....

AUTHOR

Christopher James Stone

6 years agofrom Whitstable, UK

No, but I was....

.... I wish.

dicegeorge

6 years ago

you wrote:

'In the 60s and 70s things went too far the other way, and everyone was wildly promiscuous'

but no, I don't think everyone in the 60's or even the 70's was wildly promiscuous, it was a small percentage who had free sex and drugs in the 60's , more in the 70's, more in the 80's, growing, growing, now even tory politicians ape us by wearing jeans and no tie!

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)

Google AdSense Host API

This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Facebook Login

You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)

Maven

This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)

We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.

Conversion Tracking Pixels

We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.

Statistics

Author Google Analytics

This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)

Comscore

ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)

Amazon Tracking Pixel

Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)